Airline

Airline Industry Key Financial Data 2023

The following analysis considers the 46 major publicly listed airline companies with a market capitalisation above $1 billion. The numbers presented are expressed in millions of dollars except for percentages and ratios.

In 2023 the airline industry generated $579.5 billion in revenues, an increase of 33.7% from the $433.6 billion of 2022.

Over the past 10 years, the median growth rate in revenues has been 4.6%.

Overall, the airline industry registered an operating income of $45.2 billion in 2023. Regarding profitability, the 10-year median gross margin is 24%, while the 10-year median operating margin is equal to 8.3%.

The total free cash flows to the firm for the airline industry instead, were equal to $23 billion in 2023.

Moving on to efficiency ratios, the airline industry’s 10-year median return on invested capital (ROIC) is 8.7%, while the 10-year median sales to invested capital is equal to 1.34.

The 10-year median reinvestment margin for the airline industry – expressed as total reinvestments in net capital expenditures, acquisitions, and R&D divided by total revenues – is 3.8%.

Multiplying the reinvestment margin, which shows how much airline companies have invested over the past years, by the sales to invested capital ratio, showing how efficiently airline companies have invested, is it possible to calculate the expected growth rate in revenues for the airline industry, equal to 5.49%.

Check out this post for a detailed explanation of how to calculate future revenue growth rates.

As regards solvency ratios, the debt-to-enterprise value ratio for the airline industry is 51.9%, while the debt-to-equity ratio is 163.6%.

The interest coverage ratio instead, showing how much the operating income covers interest expenses, is equal to 4.5, which would translate into a credit rating for the airline industry equal to A2/A based on Moody’s rating standards.

Finally, the unlevered beta of the airline industry – which is the beta depurated by the debt leverage – has been 0.27, for the past 2 years, and 0.46, for the past 5 years.

However, the beta is only one of the required inputs to calculate the appropriate discount rate for company valuation, check out this page where you can find the equity risk premium for different markets needed to calculate the required cost of equity.